1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an information processing apparatus and a data processing method and a program. To be more specific, the present invention relates to an information processing apparatus and a data processing method and a program that are configured to execute content recording processing and copy processing on recording media.
2. Description of the Related Art
For recording media for recording various kinds of content, such as music and video, the DVD (Digital Versatile Disc, the Blu-ray Disc (registered trademark) are in a wide use. These information recording media include media that are recorded with data beforehand and does not allow new data writing (ROM type) and media that allow data writing (R type, RE type, etc.), for example. Use of data-writing enabled information recording media allows content recorded to one media to be copied or moved to another media. Further, for example, it is practicable to download content through networks or devices installed in public spaces and record the downloaded content.
Recording media for recording content may also include hard disk drives and flash memories, for example, in addition to the above-mentioned DVDs and Blu-ray Discs (registered trademark).
The processing modes in which content is recorded to recording media include the following, for example:
(a) copying or moving content from a media (a ROM disc for example) already recorded content;
(b) downloading and recording content from servers; and
(c) recording content through terminals installed in stores or public spaces.
The above-mentioned processing is assumed, for example.
It should be noted here that many kinds of content, such as music data, image data, and so on, are protected in copyright and distribution, for example. Therefore, it is a general practice that, in providing content to users, content is provided to those users who are granted with certain use restrictions, namely, legal use rights, thereby preventing illegal manipulation of content, for example.
For example, AACS (Advanced Access Content System) is known as a standard associated with the use control of content. According to the AACS standard, the execution of content copy between media as described in processing mode (a) above requires the acquisition of copy permission information from a management server. Namely, under predetermined management, the copy of content is permitted. This copy processing is referred to as managed copy (MC).
The content providing mode of (b) above, namely, the download-type content providing processing is also referred to as EST (Electric Sell Through). The content providing mode of (c) above based on the use of shared terminal is referred to as MoD (Manufacturing on Demand). The AACS standard also requires these content providing modes to comply with predetermined rules.
The following describes the overview of the following three processing modes with reference to FIGS. 1A to 1C.
(a) MC
(b) EST
(c) MoD
(a) MC
Managed copy denotes a processing operation in which user 1 sets an information recording media (disc) 3 recorded with content beforehand onto an information processing apparatus 2 for executing data recording and reproduction processing and copies content from the information recording media 3 to a second information recording media 4, such as a data-writing enabled R/RE disc of R type or RE type, or a hard disk drive or a flash memory, and the like, as shown in FIG. 1A, for example.
In executing this content copy processing, the information processing apparatus 2 must connect to a management server 5 via a network 6 to get the permission of content copy from the management server 5.
It should be noted that FIG. 1A shows one information processing apparatus, namely, a configuration in which content copy processing between two or more media is executed by a single unit of apparatus; it is also practicable to provide an apparatus loaded with a copy source media and an apparatus loaded with a copy destination media, which are interconnected with a USB cable for example.
(b) EST
A processing operation in which content is downloaded from a server and the downloaded content is recorded to information recording media is referred to as EST. As shown in FIG. 1B, EST is a processing operation in which a media, for example, a disc 12 of R type or RE type that enables data writing, is loaded on an information processing unit 13 such as a PC of the user 1 and content is received from a content server (EST server) 14 via a network 15 to be recorded to the loaded media.
(c) MoD
The content providing processing of shared terminal use type is referred to as MoD. As shown in FIG. 1C, in MoD, a user 21 records content to a media by use of a content server 24 that is a terminal installed in a public space, such as a convenience store or a railroad station, and purchases the copied content. Namely, the user 21 sets his disc 22 of R type or RE type enabled for data writing onto the content server (MoD server) 24 that is a terminal of a convenience store 23 and writes desired content to the disc 22 by executing a content selecting operation, for example.
It should be noted that the above-mentioned processing configurations (a) through (c) are described in Patent Document 1 (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. Hei 2008-98765), for example.
As described above, the user is able to record content to data recordable media to use (or reproduce for example) the recorded data. However, if the content is copy-protected for example, it may be necessary to control the use of content to prevent unconditional usage.
As described above, AACS is known as a standard associated with content copy protection technologies. The AACS standard specifies usage control information (or usage rules) corresponding to content to employ a control configuration for executing the content usage compliant with the usage rules. Further, strict usage control is realized by dividing a piece of content into units to provide the encrypted content with unit keys applied to these units, the unit keys being obtained by a particular user.
If the disc to which content has been recorded is a media that allows reproduction of the content and does not allow new recording of content, for example, a ROM disc, no new additional recording or editing of content is executed on the disc, so that the content-unique usage rules and the unit keys corresponding to media-recorded content can be provided to the user as recorded to the media.
However, in the mode where content is recorded to a disc of R type or RE type, a hard disk drive, or a flash memory, for example, and the recorded content is used, the recorded content is not fixed, so that update operations such as recording of new contents and deletion of recorded contents are supported. In accordance with the updating of media stored content as described above, the processing of updating usage control information and unit keys may be required.
When the user records content to media, complicated processings, such as the recording of various auxiliary data corresponding to the recorded content may be required, in addition to the recording of content. Therefore, for example, if the above-mentioned managed copy is executed, it is a general practice to executing the copy processing by using a program specified a series of processing sequences in advance.
For example, a program (or a player application) for executing the above-mentioned managed copy is stored in each information processing apparatus compliant with the AACS standard. In order to execute the managed copy by use of a device compliant with AACS, the user executes the player application stored in that device. When this program is executed, a sequence of processing operations, such as the connection with the management server and the acquisition of copy permission information from the management server, are executed and then content copy processing is executed under the condition of the acquisition of copy permission information.
In copying content recorded to a Blu-ray Disc (registered trademark), managed copy is executed by invoking the player application stored in an AACS compliant device. For a method of invoking this player application, any one of the following methods is admitted in AACS:
(a) invoking from a menu presented on the UI of the device; and
(b) invoking by first invoking BD-J (Blue-ray Disc Java (registered trademark)) application program that is a Java program (registered trademark) stored in the disc with content recorded, thereby invoking the player application via the BD-J application.
AACS specifies to execute one of the above-mentioned methods (a) and (b).
The player application is a program stored in the device for executing content reproduction and recording and created as a program for common use to various kinds of content. On the other hand, the BD-J application is recordable on discs and can be set unique to content corresponding to disc-recorded content. Namely, this is a program that can be created by a content creator in accordance with disc-recorded content.
Namely, the BD-J application is a program that can be created by the content creating side to a certain degree of freedom, thereby allowing various settings in accordance with various content configurations. Therefore, setting such that managed copy is executed by applying the BD-J application also allows the content creator to execute content-unique processing for example in accordance with content configurations and the like.
However, the execution of managed copy may require the processing corresponding to the AACS-specified programs, such as the processing of converting the content data stored in the copy source into a format in accordance with the media of the copy destination and setting an AACS-specified directory such that the reproduction of the media of the copy destination can be executed in accordance with the AACS rules. The execution of these processing operations may require the processing on the execution layer (or the AACS layer) of each AACS-specified managed program.
Therefore, if the BD-J application is set as a managed copy execution program, at least a part of the processing must be executed on the AACS layer.
As described above, in order to execute managed copy, the processing in two data processing blocks, the BD-J application and the AACS layer, has to be executed in the information processing apparatus. However, the information processing apparatus is limited in resource. For example, the memory size of the information processing apparatus is limited.
In the AACS layer, content data stored in the copy source is converted into the format according to the media of the copy destination. However, if a memory area large enough is not allocated for this processing, this processing takes a long time.
The BD-J application is a Java (registered trademark) application program and executes processing by setting a virtual machine as a virtual hardware environment for executing Java (registered trademark) applications. This processing uses a large memory area in the information processing apparatus.
Therefore, if the processing operations in the two data processing blocks, the BD-J application and the AACS layer, are executed at the same time, the limited memory space in the information processing apparatus is used by both the AACS layer and the BD-J application to possibly lead to the insufficient allocation of the memory space required by both the data processing blocks, thereby delaying the processing of each data processing block and protracting the processing time.